Can we change how we learn without changing how we teach?
The greatest barrier to implementing new technology into any teaching/learning environment is learning the technology itself. For many, learning to use then implement the technology can be quite daunting and can decrease the effectiveness of the teaching that follows. A utopian solution would be one that was totally transparent to the end user (teacher and student) yet provide a significant increase for a individuals cognitive capacity and increase the transfer of learning taking place, with an embedded study and review process to ensure better understanding and retention of the content being taught. For the solution to be transparent it must provide no barrier to both teacher and student in its implementation, allowing them to engage in the learning process without learning how to use the technology, better yet, not even being consciously aware that any technology is being used.
This paper explores such a process, whereby seamless integration of several technologies working in conjunction with Omina, resulting in an outcome that does not change the way teaching is implemented but could significantly impact on the effectiveness of the learning taking place.
Towards Today's Classroom ...
The three essential activities that occur in all teaching/learning environments that have remained constant for thousands of years are talking, listening and recording (by various means). The degree to which these three activities are implemented varies according to the type of teaching and learning taking place as will the level of engagement and interaction of the participants involved.
Historically, the teacher had all the knowledge and passed their interpretation of it onto their students through verbal discourse and demonstration. The students listened, questioned, and (possibly) recorded what they heard and saw so that they too may gain the knowledge (and remember it) to pass onto the next generation. Not much changed until the invention of the printing press in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg when the new dimension of reading augmented the process by making books more accessible to scholars. For teachers, this meant that they could record what they knew into a relatively cost effective medium and thereby being able to disseminate their knowledge to a far greater audience than they could reach personally. For students, books provided an alternative means of studying - one where they could control the pace and not be tied to one teacher, but linked to many alternatives and/or opposing views of knowledge.
Over the last 100 years, the tools and materials that teachers could access to enhance their teaching has increased exponentially from print-based materials to electronic media to computers, but the essential activities of talking, listening and recording have not changed. The methodologies for implementing these activities may have changed, moving from teacher-centric to student-centric approaches, as too have the expectations of students towards the way teaching is implemented, particularly enhancing the processes within a methodology with different technologies, often shifting the mantle of learner onto the teacher at an increasing rate but not allowing them enough time to do the learning themselves (Butler and Sellbom, 2002b; King, 2007).
The push to provide (inter)active learning environments, has seen an increase in use of technology within the classroom (Fernandez-Manjon and Sancho, 2002; Rollins and Almeroth, 2004). Students expect a hands-on approach to their learning, access to multiple sources of information, and flexible learning environments that meet their changing needs (Sander, 2005). Teachers are expected to know how to implement each new technology with little or no training, be up-to-date as advances to the technology are made, and above all else maintain their quality of teaching. For many this is achievable, but for some this is quite daunting and stressful and often "giving teachers technology without training has often done more harm than good to teaching and learning." (Trinkle, 2005:21). So, how can we reduce the technology learning curve for teachers and ensure the benefits of technological tools for the students?
Implementing Seamless Technologies
"A critical question that often faces educational technologists is how to deliver excellence in teaching and subject matter content to learners." - Naidu, Barret, and Olsen (2000:112)
Assuming that transparent augmentation of the content is the desired goal from any form of computer-enhanced learning environments, both the teacher and the students should not even know they are using the technology. In a typical class, the teacher delivers some content and the students listen, discuss and take notes, in varying degrees depending on the teaching/learning methodologies being implemented. So, what technologies can we implement to reduce the teacher's interaction with it and also augment the student's learning using it?
Although many students are computer- and Internet-literate there are still many that have little or no experience with computers and electronic networks (Naidu, Barret, and Olsen, 2000; Oblinger, 2004), and for some teachers, using technology in their every day teaching is quite threatening (McNaught and Kennedy, 2000). Therefore, the technology being used should be minimal - a laptop connected to a data projector, and a lapel mike.
A typical lecture at a university may be one where the teacher uses PowerPoint slides or an electronic whiteboard to present the content and students take notes either on a laptop or using pen and paper. However, are the students using laptops really taking notes or are they playing games, surfing the net and answering e-mails? Also, are these multi-tasking students effectively processing the information being presented? (Plymale, 2007) Jordan Grafman, chief of the cognitive neuroscience section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) suggests that multitasking is really rapid toggling between tasks rather than simultaneously processing them - "You're doing more than one thing, but you're ordering them and deciding which one to do at any one time," and argues that "Kids that are instant messaging while doing homework, playing games online and watching TV, I predict, aren't going to do well in the long run." (Wallis, 2006) Therefore, a suitable alternative to note taking on a laptop needs to be available but it must also be capable of plugging into other forms of data captured during the lesson.
The proposed solution is to have students use a digital pen, recording their notes on digital paper and the teacher using Omina to record and capture audio and visual content. The digital pen records every pen stroke and associated date and time for each stroke. Simultaneously, the teacher's every spoken word, every slide and every character written on the whiteboard can be captured and stored digitally on a laptop. Both the teacher and the student are performing normal activities which they are familiar with, without being consciously aware of the technology that is working transparently in the background.
At the end of the lesson the teacher closes their PowerPoint and the Omina software automatically synchronises the audio with the slides, complies it into a single protected file, and automatically uploads it to a web server, ready for distribution. Then, as the students leave, they can either dock their pens into a USB hub or submit them via Bluetooth to transfer a copy of their notes to the server so that they can be synced with the recorded audio and slides. Later they can download the entire lesson, complete with their handwritten notes, ready for study and review where the power of the Omina software truly excels - allowing for rich mark-up of the content by individuals without changing the original content. How does this work?
Omina can record, capture and sync unlimited input data channels (as shown above) e.g. Audio, PowerPoint Slides, Handwritten, White Board notes etc within a single *.omina file, creating a real-time synchronised and digitised storage/retrieval system, that provides students with the ability of instant recall and review of any captured content. With the added ability to add more content as a post process and share this added content with others.
The *.omina file is not limited to speech, lecture slides and written notes. It can also capture and incorporate URLs, digital photos, screen captures, associated documents or attachments, and any other form of digital data, including data from multiple digital pens.
Students open the *.omina file in the Omina Viewer or Editor Fig. 1. Here they can (a) review their written notes, (b) listen to the audio and (c) view the synced slides. A transcription window (d) is also available for those who want to directly transcribe their notes while listening to the audio and a pop-up menu (e) adds further functionality.
The common point of reference for all the data within an *.omina file is time (b). Since the hand written notes are also stored within the file, the recorded audio is automatically indexed, making future review or recall as simple as a single mouse click. By clicking on a specific note, the software instantly jumps to the corresponding point in time within the audio file (eg: Better Review). Now students have control over both the pace and the sequence when reviewing the content, and by clicking on the individual windows ((a), (c) or (d) in Fig. 1) they can bring into focus the relevant content for detailed study.
The additional functionality added via the pop-up menu (shown at (e) in Fig. 1) is where the students can really use the versatility of Omina. It allows students to add comment icons, dictated notes, customised movies, digital images, attachments and hyperlinks, as well as importing, exporting images and pasting other content. Each option?s icon can also be customised (Fig. 2) to further provide the student with instant visual clues as to the content being marked so that it can be quickly accessed at a later date.
However, it is the ability to embed custom movie clips that could have the greatest impact on student study and review practices (Fig. 3). At any point in the file the student can stop the audio and insert a custom movie clip. The movie clip can provide students with the opportunity to include their own commentary about a point made by the teacher, or explain a diagram, chart or graph. For example, if the image in Fig. 3 related to group dynamics, the student could add other relevant information about group dynamics at the point, including recording the position of the mouse cursor (eg: when pointing to part of the image). They can also embed additional movies inside a movie should they need to embellish the original commentary or when they have learned new information.
Furthermore, students can collaborate with others by linking or sharing their notes and commentaries to any given file without altering the original content. This functionality not only enhances the student's study but can also provide opportunities for further co-operative or collaborative tasks.
Exploring Teaching and Learning Opportunities
"Effective problem-solving and thinking are not based solely on motivation and knowledge of thinking strategies, but also on well-organised and indexed content knowledge. Learners must have rich knowledge structures with many contextual links to help then address and solve complex problems." (Grabinger and Dunlap, 2000:12)
Grabinger and Dunlap identified a number of "new assumptions about the nature of thinking, learning and instruction" (2000:12) and defined strategies for the adoption of these assumptions as creating Rich Environments for Active Learning - REALs (2000:13). The key new assumptions identified include transferring learning from one situation to another can be difficult for people unless done in a meaningful context; learning is an active, collaborative and cognitive process in which learners construct, discuss, test, create and evolve knowledge structures on their own and with their peers; learners can take responsibility for their learning when their individual needs and experiences, skills and knowledge are enhanced through appropriate learning activities that include realistic or authentic conditions or contexts; and the need to de-emphasise standardised testing. Learning environments where teachers and students use a combination of a digital pen and the Omina system can support all of the above assumptions in a variety of ways, all of which will provide opportunities for enhanced learning to take place.
In order to effectively transfer learning the learner must take time to sort, categorise and/or chunk the information acquired, and then store it in memory. Haskell (2001) contends that when effective transfer of learning occurs it becomes extremely economical on an individual's learning resources, easing the load on memory, and "it helps us to efficiently store, remember, integrate, process and retrieve information." (2001:32) However, often in a learning situation there is little time for this to happen immediately, so students must take notes and later rely on them and their memory to process and store the information for later use. The Omina system allows individuals to take notes as required during class presentations, discussions, lectures, and seminars knowing that the need for total recall of the subject matter is eliminated because they can later enhance their notes with more specific or additional information during their study and review using a variety of rich mark-up techniques. With all the information captured during a learning session being automatically indexed to personal and/or peers notes and having access to a variety of rich mark-up options, the process required to ensure transfer takes place are greatly enhanced. The learner can make connections to other content delivered during the session, add links to relevant content on the web, order and categorise data so that it relates to their internal schema and knowledge structures, and even validate or dispute others notes and interpretations - all within a single file.
The concept of providing engaging activities is not new, as evidenced by Schuell's (1986:429) comment "if students are to learn desired outcomes in a reasonably effective manner, then the teacher's fundamental task is to get students to engage in learning activities that are likely to result in their achieving those outcomes." However, providing both appropriate and engaging learning activities that include realistic or authentic conditions or contexts can be difficult, particularly when faced with a diverse range of students. In addition, there is increased pressure for the inclusion of on-line resources to provide equity of access to content by all students. Unfortunately, the "successful development of online teaching materials requires both knowledge of pedagogy as it applies to multimedia technologies as well as knowledge of the capabilities of current software and hardware." (Torrisi-Steele and Davis, 2000:283) This can leave some teachers in a quandary as how to provide these resources or add significant costs to the development of them from other sources.
From the teacher's perspective, the Omina system allows them to create discrete modules of work that can be used by individuals or groups, even if they have a limited skill set when it comes to the Internet. Each module could include a spoken overview or description of the issue to be addressed, a number of images, links or references to provide examples or starting points, and a description of the task(s) to be completed. The development process is not that different to preparing lecture materials, for example the module can consist of a number of PowerPoint slides with the appropriate content added. Instead of delivering the slides to the students, the teacher runs the slideshow while recording their commentary via a normal microphone at their desk. Closing the slideshow will automate the process of uploading the module to a web server, where the students can download the file and begin their assigned task(s). Since the original file cannot be altered the module is always reusable, minimising the cost of creation and duplication.
From the student's perspective, once they have accessed the required module, they can work collaborative within the same room (via Bluetooth or LAN) or from diverse locations (via the Web). Any changes made by an individual can be easily uploaded, re-synced with the original file and downloaded by other. This means that as individuals they can add typed notes, URLs, and spoken commentary that progressively add to the accumulation of the group's research of the task. When reviewing each update, individuals can use the contributions by others to enhance their understanding of the task, ask for further clarification, investigate and validate new data. Once they have reached saturation point for research, the process can be repeated, allowing the group to collaboratively refine their solution until they reach a consensus for the completed task. Submission for assessment can be by hardcopy, as an electronic document, or alternatively the Omina system can be used by the students to create their final submissions for assessment - complete with embedded images, movies, text and commentary.
An additional feature of the Omina system is that teachers can use it to provide detailed verbal feedback to students in a fraction of the time it takes to create the same level of detail as written feedback, as the process of marking assignments can be a key frustration because the process is very time consuming. Printed documents are easy to read and mark but writing feedback directly on the document can be limited by available space and, if other students make the same or similar mistakes, the same or similar comments must be re-written, a duplicated effort. Similar issues arise when marking electronically submitted documents with the added discomfort of spending much longer in front of the computer. However, the Omina system allows the teacher to read and review documents in real time. By importing the document directly into the Omina Viewer / Editor, whenever a comment is required, the teacher simply inserts a dictation icon at that point and adds appropriate verbal commentary. If a more detailed comment is required, a movie clip can be embedded allowing for the capture of the mouse pointer and highlighting the section(s) being discussed. All inserted icons can also be customised (Fig. 2) to further provide the student with instant visual clues, such as a good [tick] or bad [cross] example, areas that need work [spanner], good ideas or important points made [light bulb], or more information is required [info bubble]. Adding verbal comments is a much faster and efficient way of providing detailed feedback to the students. A student can now listen to the comments while seeing the sections they directly relate to, reducing the split modality effect often encountered with written feedback, as if the teacher is sitting with them and explaining one-on-one what is both good and bad with the assignment. From a marking perspective, Omina makes the process a fun and pleasurable experience rather than a daunting task. From a student's perspective, the feedback is now rich, dynamic, very informative and much easier to process.
Omina also provides the ability for real-time notes to be added via an ASCI input device e.g. Digital NoteTaker or Laptop, whereby rather than use a digital pen to index the audio, time stamped notes can be included. The major benefit of this method of indexing is all notes are now computer searchable, which means information within a file can easily be found via an internal search process allowing the file to be indexed by 3rd party content management systems or search engines such as Google. What is also great about this method, the person best suited for this task is either a vision impaired or blind person, who does not have the ability to take traditional hand written notes but with the aid of a keyboard they can easily take time stamped notes that then benefit the rest students upon completion.
Lastly, Omina makes it possible to add additional channels as a post process. For example, imagine a teacher displays a complicated flow chart or business process on slide with Power Point. Omina automatically captures this image and all corresponding audio (narrative), however if the teacher uses a laser pointer while talking, this pointing information (data) will not be captured hence lost. A laser pointer acts like glue and binds (joins the audio to the image to provide greater meaning and understanding. However, after the class is over, a student can review this part of the lesson, re-listen and view the slide. Once they are confident they know the connections between what is being spoken and what is being displayed, the student can re-listen again and this time add a mouse channel as a post process whereby (x and y) mouse movements can be applied in sync with the audio. In doing so, an additional channel of information can be added, thereby replacing what was not captured (lost) when the teacher used the laser pointer. Once these mouse (x and y) movements have been added with associated date and time information, this extra channel can be exported and shared with others from the same class, eliminating the need for other students to do the same process.
Pilot Studies
Throughout the latter half of 2007, two small pilot studies are being undertaken to test the validity and effectiveness of the Omina system. The first study is being conducted in an educational environment at Monash University with a small number of students taking the Human-Computer Interaction in Multimedia unit of the Bachelor of Information Technology Systems (Multimedia Applications). A previous study explored the use of an alternative teaching and learning method using a collaborative games-based study tool, with limited success (C. Howard, M. Morgan, and K. Ellis, 2006; C. Howard, M. Morgan, and K. Ellis, 2006)). The focus of this study is to determine whether the effectiveness of the Omina system does enhance the study and review processes that the students already have by providing the opportunity to manipulate the content delivered in lectures to suit their individual study needs and how this impacts of the long-term retention of information. The lectures will be recorded and made available to all students, however, the participants of the study will be able to add to the lectures using the features of the Omina Viewer / Editor. The participants will also be allowed to collaborate with each other using this system while working on their group assignment. At the end of the semester the participants will complete a survey on their experiences using Omina and their final results will be examined and compared to the control group.
The second study is being conducted, in collaboration with Omina within the conference environment. Whereby delegates will be able to use the technology, without any prior training, during the conference and be given access to the uploaded files both during and after the conference. The participating delegates will be encouraged to explore the potential of the Omina system to enhance their conference experience and their retention of the information delivered. At the end of the conference the participants will complete a survey on their experiences using Omina and two months later will complete a quiz related to the conference content to examine their level of retention of the data delivered.
A comparison of the two groups will be used to determine if using the Omina system enhances the long-term retention of information because it provides the participants with opportunities to manipulate the content being delivered to suit their individual learning and study needs. Other factors to be examined will include the ease of use, the integration of Omina into their regularly used applications/tools and the frequency of using and their application of the Omina system.
Demonstration
One of the limitations of printed words is the inability to fully explain or demonstrate fully what Omina can do. That being the case, below is a link to a flash movie of Omina in action.
http://www.quikscribe.com.au/demo/Law9000Movie/Law9000.htmlNote: This content was captured at a Law9000 presentation held at the College Of Law at St Leonards, Sydney. All attendees at the presentation were provided digital pens to take notes. The actual written notes shown in this movie were written by Stephen Burke who is the Chairman of Law9000 and the presentation was presented by SAI Global.
Conclusions
Sander's study (2005) suggests that students prefer to be taught by interactive lecture and group-based activities while formal lectures, role play and student presentations were the least preferred methods of learning. The Omina system can provide some interaction within a formal lecture, with future developments exploring the use of Bluetooth and wireless networks to increase this interactivity to include instant polling (eg: students can submit an answer to a multiple choice question or poll).
The potential of the Omina system providing a novel way to approach collaborative research and study could have a significant effect on the motivation of all learners towards achieving a deeper level of learning and retaining that information more efficiently and for longer. The additional benefit of using Omina for providing detailed feedback to students quickly and easily should seriously be considered by teachers as an effective and efficient way of assessing students work, as well as an effective way of easing their marking load. The benefits the students receive from this type of feedback could also contribute to an increased desire to learn because Omina can be adapted to suit their individual learning styles.
Using Omina in a variety of teaching and learning environments can provide students with rich environments for active learning, as described by Grabinger and Dunlap (2000) where "media are tools for students and teachers to use, and that the learning that occurs within the environment is founded on the activities and processes that encourage thinking and reasoning, not the media that deliver information." (2000:14)
References
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| Cheryl Howard
, Berwick School of Information Technology |
| Monash University, Melbourne, Australia |
| cheryl.howard@infotech.monash.edu.au |
